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Page 554
it is equally unlikely that there was no real cause for the way his people and noblemen felt about him. John was the "evil king" of legend (Robin Hood and others) and the legends began in, or very shortly after, John's reign. These legends were not generated by political considerations (as the legends about "evil" King Richard III were generated by the conquering Tudors), because John's own son reigned after him.
Under the circumstances, I have felt free to make John the "villain" of this book, although I have tried to express the duality of his personality. Because the central characters are fictional, all the machinations against them are, of course, constructed for the purposes of the story and are not real. However, the rumors about the death of John's nephew Arthur (although not the story told by Sir Guy, who is also fictional), of his treatment of William, Earl of Pembroke, and his conflict with the Church and his barons are historical fact. The "evil" characters of Fulk de Cantelu and Henry of Cornhill are, again, contemporary judgments and come from a prejudiced source (Roger of Wendover's Flowers of History). These men did the bidding of the king. Fulk disappears from history, but two other de Cantelus and Henry of Cornhill served John's son with honor and distinction. Perhaps Roger of Wendover was unfair to these gentlemen, or perhaps it is true that a "dishonest master makes dishonest servants." All in all, although I may have maligned the latter gentlemen, I do not believe there is any serious inaccuracy in my portrayal of King John.
Certain words, however, have been used anachronistically as a convenience. The word "English," as in English lords, English vassals, and so on, is the most important inaccuracy. These men were, of course, not English at all. Some had English blood, owing to intermarriage of the Anglo-Saxon nobility with the Normans who came with William the Bastard, but each successive king had brought followers from his own provinces. By

 
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